Fay Vincent died yesterday at the age of 86; the cause of death was bladder cancer. Vincent was MLB Commissioner from 1989 through 1992. His time as the head of the sport was tumultuous to say the least; in those three years he dealt with the banishment of both Pete Rose and George Steinbrenner, league expansion and labor unrest leading to a lockout. He also happened to be in the Commissioner’s seat when the World Series was “interrupted” by an earthquake.
Rest in peace, Fay Vincent.
The other piece of big news from last weekend is the NBA trade involving Luka Doncic to the Lakers and Anthony Davis to the Mavs. The analysis of that exchange at CBSSports.com has this lead sentence:
“The Dallas Mavericks just made the worst trade in NBA history.”
When you consider that Wilt Chamberlain was traded (twice) and Kareem Abdul Jabbar was traded and Kobe Bryant was traded, that lead sentence might be a tad hyperbolic, but the Mavs should have been able to get more than Davis and a first round pick out in the future for a 25-year-old Luka Doncic. While just about everyone assigns the Lakers as the winners in this exchange – – as do I – – one of the losers is Doncic himself.
Had he been a Maverick this summer, he would have been eligible to get a “super max contract extension”. The NBA salary cap rules are Byzantine at best so let me go on what reports say about his contract situation without the details.
- “Super Max” would be worth about $345M over 5 years BUT only the Mavs can make that offer based on Doncic’s years in the NBA and who drafted him and how long he had been with that team before being traded.
- The best extension he can get now is about $230M over 4 years and he can get that deal from the Lakers or anyone else if he becomes a free agent.
- Moreover, Texas is a state with no income tax; California has an income tax with the top marginal rate being 13%.
The pairing of Doncic with LeBron James makes the Lakers into championship material for 2025. The move from Dallas to LA might wind up costing Doncic tens of millions of dollars. Do not shed crocodile tears over that “loss”; Doncic’s current deal has another year to run, and he will make $43M for the 2025/2026 season before any sort of monster extension contract might kick in.
Moving on … According to a story that broke in the Baltimore Banner, Ravens’ kicker, Justin Tucker, has been accused of “improper behavior” regarding masseuses in the Baltimore area. If this sounds to you like a reprise of the Deshaun Watson situation in Houston, you would be correct. Skipping all the sordid details, the only significant difference in the two sets of accusations is in the number of women making allegations in the two cases. Watson faced accusations from almost two dozen women; Tucker’s total is still approaching one dozen.
These alleged improprieties have been going on for a while because one of the accusers filed a document with the spa that employed her about such behavior back in 2015. That tidbit of course leads to the question of why this is coming to light now and not back in the past proximal to the time of the behavior. Not to worry, the NFL is investigating and that should take somewhere around a couple of years to come to a conclusion that will never be made public thereby clearing up this matter in the minds of fans and other parties who are interested in it for publicity purposes.
It will be interesting, however, to see how the NFL deals with Tucker in comparison to how the NFL dealt with Watson given that the alleged behaviors involved are quite similar.
- Watson is a QB; Tucker is a Kicker. QBs in general are more valuable and more visible to a franchise and the league than kickers.
- Watson is a middling QB; Tucker is one of the best Kickers ever.
- Watson was fined and suspended by the league for a full season’ Tucker … TBD.
Tucker says the accusations made by all these women are “unequivocally false”. This story is nowhere near over …
Switching gears … I read a report that the eight United Football League teams will be “headquartered” in Arlington, TX. There is some confusion here, but it seems that games will be played in the “home cities” of the teams but that all game prep and administrative functions for the eight teams will be in Texas. This does not seem to be a return to the concept of the UFL playing all its games in the Birmingham area; it seems that Arlington will be “home” for players and for practice facilities and the like but that games will be distributed to the places where the teams are nominally representing.
If I have it right, the only justification for such an arrangement would be financial benefit and that reminds me that even with FOX and ESPN TV deals in place, the UFL remains a work in progress as a viable economic entity. In any event, the start of the 2025 UFL season is going to begin on March 28th – – right in the midst of March Madness. The regular season will be ten weeks long – – with no BYE Weeks thankfully – – and will culminate in the UFL Championship Game on Flag Day, June 14th.
Finally, having mentioned Justin Tucker above who is a Baltimore Raven, let me close with this observation by Edgar Allan Poe:
“I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………